Cdr.David McCampbell

Top Navy Ace of WW2, shot down 34 Japanese planes

"All available fighter pilots! Man your planes!"
boomed the squawk box in Essex' ready room. The ship's radar
had detected three large groups of Japanese planes coming in.

David McCampbell, the CAG and the Navy's most famous
living aviator,
considered this announcement. Earlier that morning, Admiral Sherman
himself had forbidden McCampbell from joining a dawn sortie. Given his
responsibilities as Commander of Essex' Air Group and his public
prominence as a top ace, McCampbell was too valuable. He decided that
he was indeed "available" and headed for his airplane, Minsi III.
His plane crew hurried to fuel Minsi III, which had not been
scheduled to fly that day. With the Hellcat only partially fueled, the
Flight Officer ordered it off the flight deck - either into the air or
below to the hangar deck. McCampbell went up, leading Essex's
last seven fighters toward the Jap strike force.

He and Ens. Roy Rushing got out in front of the other Hellcats,
putting on all speed to intercept the Japs, then only 22 miles away. He
directed the other F6F's to get the bombers, while he and Rushing
tackled the fighters. Surprisingly, the enemy fighters turned, allowing
McCampbell and Rushing to gain altitude and a position behind them.

Seeing over 40 Japanese fighters, McCampbell radioed back to the
carrier for help. "Sorry, none available." The enemy planes spread out
in a typical formation of three V's. McCampbell picked out a Zero on
the extreme right and flamed it. Rushing also got one on this first
pass. Incredibly, there was no reaction from the Japs as they climbed
back up to regain altitude. The two Hellcat pilots dived back down on
their quarry for another pass; McCampbell blew up a second Zero. Now
the gaggle of Zeros, Tonys, Hamps, and Oscars reacted - by going into a
Lufbery! McCampbell made a couple of head-on passes against the
formation, but without results.

A strange interlude ensued as McCampbell and Rushing climbed back up
and circled, while the Japanese fighters continued to circle below.
McCampbell radioed again for help; one of the Hellcats that had been
going after the bombers headed his way. The Lufbery broke up and the
planes headed toward Luzon in a wide Vee. The two American fliers
closed in again on the formation. McCampbell opened up at 900 feet, and
exploded his third plane of the morning. Rushing shot down his second
one.

Apparently low on fuel, the Japanese planes doggedly flew on,
maintaining formation. On his next firing pass, gunfire coming from
behind forced McCampbell to break off his attack and pull up. It was
another Hellcat shooting too close to him. A few choice words
straightened things out. Still the enemy planes didn't turn and mix it
up.

McCampbell realized he could relax and take his time. This was
practically gunnery exercise. He could focus on identifying his targets
carefully. The next one was an Oscar. Again his six fifties roared anad
blasted the Oscar's wing root. It flamed for number four. Rushing had
scored his third by this time. This continued for several more passes
until McCampbell had downed 7 and Rushing 6. Rushing radioed that he
was out of ammo, but he would stay on McCampbell's wing while the CAG
used up his remaining bullets.

Two more passes and two more kills. As the Jap planes approached the
security of their bases on Luzon, the two Americans' low fuel finally
ended the slaughter. The Hellcats broke off and headed for Essex.
In one morning sortie, McCampbell had shot down nine enemy planes
and Rushing six, an unparalleled achievement in American fighter
aviation.

Born on January 16, 1910, this Bessemer, Alabama native's naval
career began with dismissal. Graduating from the
U.S. Naval Academy in depression-
era 1933, he was rewarded with an honorable discharge from a Navy
without funds. But in June 1934 McCampbell was called back and
commissioned. In 1936 his first assignment involving aircraft
was gunnery observer aboard U.S.S. Portland. In 1937,
McCampbell's flying career finally
got off the ground at Pensacola Naval Air Station where he reported for
flight training. A year later, he was designated a Naval Aviator and
received
his first flying assignment with Fighting Squadron 4 aboard the
USS Ranger, CV-4 where he served two years.

Wasp was home from 1940 until she went to the bottom in 1942.
During that time were two hot runs to the Mediterranean
delivering Spitfires to Malta and support to the Guadalcanal
campaign.

After
Wasp
was sunk on Sept. 15, 1942 by a Japanese submarine, McCampbell
returned to the States to fit out a new squadron, Air Group 15, aka
"The Fabled Fifteen." In February 1943 through early 1944 the group was
aboard
Essex steaming into history. One of the first squadrons to equip
with Grumman's new F6F Hellcats, they saw action in attacks on Iwo
Jima, Formosa, the
Marianas, Palau, Philippines, Nansei, Shotos
and climaxed with the Battle of the Philippine Sea (Marianas
Turkey Shoot).

Barrett Tillman, in Hellcat
Aces of World War 2,
describes the introduction of the Hellcat to the U.S. Navy's carriers in the
Pacific, and the immediate impact it had. Like all of Osprey's Aircraft
of the Aces series, it's a great reference. The cover depicts
McCampbell in his Hellcat, Minsi.

In February 1944, he was promoted to CAG (Commander - Air Group) of
Air Group Fifteen. That spring, they went to war aboard USS Essex
CV-9. McCampbell commanded the entire Essex air group --
bombers, fighters, and torpedo planes. He was thirty-four years old.
During their tour of approximately seven months and more than 20,000
hours of operations, this group destroyed more enemy planes (318
airborne and 348 on the ground) and sank more enemy ships (296,500 tons
sunk, and more than a half million tons damaged and/or probably sunk)
than any other air group in the Pacific war. Among the major combat
ships sunk was the
Japanese battleship Musashi, three carriers and a heavy
cruiser. The Fabled Fifteen became one of the most highly decorated air
groups of the war.

McCampbell entered combat on May 19, 1944, leading a fighter sweep
over Marcus Island. Three weeks later on June 11, flying near Saipan,
he saw a lone Zero come out of the clouds. He turned towards the plane
and fired three bursts. The Zero went down streaming smoke, the first
in long series of successes for the CAG. He reacted coolly to his first
aerial victory, "I knew I could shoot him down and I did. That's all
there was to it."

Marianas Turkey Shoot

As the United States forces prepared for the invasion of Guam and Saipan, the
Carrier Task Force steamed west into the Philippine Sea. The desperate
Japanese battle plan called for them to launch their strike planes at
the U.S. ships, then refuel & re-arm on the Guam and Saipan
airfields and hit the American carriers again in a 'shuttle' operation.
It didn't turn out that way.

On June 19, the Japanese launched two large raids of Judys and Vals,
escorted by fighters. Other carrier air groups took care of the first
raid; Essex' Fabled Fifteen, under McCampbell went after the
second group of eighty planes. McCampbell started the slaughter at
11:39 by exploding the first Aichi
D4Y2 "Judy" dive bomber he spotted. As he darted across to the other
side
of the enemy formation, evading a gantlet of return fire, McCampbell
quickly
splashed a second Judy, sped toward the front of the enemy formation to
record a "probable" on a third, dispatched the formation leader's left
wingman with a staccato burst, downed the leader with a steady stream
of
machine-gun bullets, then scored a final kill on a diving enemy craft.
In minutes McCampbell had logged five kills and one probable.

There was a second air battle in the afternoon. After shooting down
yet another Zero (his sixth for the day!), he became separated from his
flight of eight and was returning alone to his carrier, the USS
Essex.
As his Hellcat cruised at 6,000 feet past Guam's Orote Peninsula, he
spotted two Zeros attacking a Navy S0C seaplane picking up a downed
pilot in the water. Diving to the attack, McCampbell shot down one of
the two Zeros. Lt. Commander George Duncan, another VF-15 pilot, came
upon the scene at that time and got the other. It was McCampbell's seventh
for the day and his ninth in eight days of combat.

During the September 12-13 strikes on the Philippines, He shot down
five more planes, and learned about the capabilities of the 'Nate' - a
small, open-cockpit monoplane, slow and lightly armed, but highly
maneuverable, advanced trainer. McCampbell had bagged two Zeros early
in the day, and was heading alone toward a rendezvous when a Nate
attacked him from above. It pulled out of gun range without damaging
McCampbell's Hellcat, but McCampbell wanted the kill.
He dropped his belly tank and put on full WEP, but kept losing ground.
The Nate's student-pilot saw his advantage and began an overhead pass;
but McCampbell dove for the deck. In his after-action report he noted
"1) Nate is even more maneuverable than Zeke. 2) Nate can out-climb F6F
at 110-120 knots airspeed. 3) This 'operational student', if he was
usch, will have no trouble completing the course." By the end of
September 1944, McCampbell had shot down nineteen Japanese
planes.

On October 24, during the Battle of Leyte
Gulf, McCampbell, assisted only by Roy Rushing, broke up a large
group of Japanese planes headed for Essex, as described above.

In one combat tour, David McCampbell shot down 34 Japanese aircraft.
If he had served a second tour, he may very well have exceeded Dick
Bong's total of 40. In recognition of his spectacular accomplishments:
leading "Fabled Fifteen," personally accounting for 34 planes, and for
his mission on October 24, McCampbell received the Congressional Medal
of Honor, presented to him by President Roosevelt.

McCampbell also received the Navy Cross, the Silver
Star Medal, Legion of Merit, and the Distinguished Flying Cross. After
the war, McCampbell served in the Navy until his retirement in 1964.
Married four times, David McCampbell must have had quite an eye for the
ladies.
He died in Florida after a lengthy illness on June 30, 1996.

Sources:

Barrett Tillman, Hellcat: The F6F in World War II, Naval
Institute Press, 1979